FTX Halts Sale of Its $500 Million Stake in AI Startup Anthropic

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has abruptly halted the sale of one of its most sought-after assets: a stake in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

Perella Weinberg Partners, the boutique investment bank that acts as an adviser to FTX, informed bidders this month about the pause, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named discussing confidential information.

The halt came after several months during which multiple potential buyers assessed private information about the Anthropic stake, the people said. Semafor reported earlier in June that FTX had been shopping its Anthropic holding with an expectation of fetching “nine figures.”

Privately-held Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, has become one of the hottest companies of the current AI boom. Anthropic said in May that it had raised $450 million to support the development of its AI bot, dubbed Claude.

Buyers in the secondary market for shares in private companies have been actively seeking opportunities to acquire stakes in Anthropic, including at a premium, according to Rainmaker Securities co-founder Glen Anderson…Read Full Article